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Another Crack in the Glass Ceiling

Politics aside…can we do that? Can we, just for a few moments put aside our political preferences, stop yelling about who’s the biggest liar, which side is the best for ‘Merica and which politician is in bed with which corporation? Can we stop the finger pointing and name-calling long enough to acknowledge that history has just been made?

Congratulations to Hillary Clinton for making a big ole crack in the glass ceiling! This week she became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. Political party.

Let me back up a minute; some recent social media posts may have us a little confused. Yes, Victoria Woodhull, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement ran for president under the “Equal Rights” party in 1872. According to Wikipedia.org she didn’t receive any electoral votes. Oddly, she couldn’t even vote for herself in the popular election as women did not yet have the right to vote.

In 1972 Shirley Chisholm, the first black congresswoman, ran for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. She did not win the nomination.

Hillary is the first to actually win a major-party nomination to run for President of the United States. Yep, a big old crack in the glass ceiling that still has not shattered.

To borrow a controversial phrase from Hilz, “…at this point, what difference does it make?”

It makes a lot of difference because today a friend told a story of a young girl telling her just last night that a woman can’t become president. “It’s just not right,” the girl said. “Only a man can do that.”

Last year, Dallas businesswoman, Cheryl Rios, said that a woman should not be allowed to run the country. CNN quoted Rios as saying, “I believe the woman should cook the meal for the man, like I believe in staying home when you have your child.” Did I mention that she, herself is a businesswoman?

Rios cited the Bible and hormones as reasons women aren’t suitable. Yeah, like hormones have never caused problems for a male politician. As for the Bible, you know that a woman was the first to know and spread the word that Jesus had risen, right? There are many books and articles about women leaders in the Bible despite biblical times being a very male dominated era. If you think the Bible says women shouldn’t lead I suggest you do a little more research.

Rios then stated that if Hillary won she was moving to Canada. Apparently the poor gal didn’t know that a woman, Kim Campbell had already served as Canada’s Prime Minister. She’ll have to look carefully for another country if she’s going to flee because sixty-three nations –yes, sixty-three—have already had a female head of government.

In my years of working with women in business and interviewing approximately 100 ‘first woman’ I’ve often heard people ask, “When will we have a female president?” I still don’t know if it’ll be in my lifetime but Hillary set a precedent. Also, shout out to Carly Fiorina who ran this year as a Republican and gave us the first primary where we could vote for a woman on either party.

I’m not saying you should vote for Hillary because she’s a woman. Or for any other reason. I’m not saying I’ll vote for her. Voting is private by design. And we’re setting politics aside for these few moments, remember?

The point is, no matter who is elected to serve as the next president of the United States, Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to receive a major party nomination for the office. That is important!

Now you can tell your daughters and granddaughters that girls can run for President and you’ll be able to point to a woman who did!